A Saiyan's Pride
by escapexchaos
Summary: When the Prince of the once-proud Sayian race is forced to stay with a normal Earth woman who insists on teasing him, Vegeta starts having flashbacks of his days working as a soldier under Frieza's oppressive rule. While he writes these flashbacks off as nothing more than dreams, an old friend proves him wrong. Takes place in and around the android saga. Sorta Vegeta x Bulma
1. Chapter 1

"Vegeta… Give me your hand. I-I can't get up…" Nappa was lying on the cold ground, bleeding out. The Prince reached out and grabbed his partners hand. "Thank you…" The bald Sayian managed.

"Hmph, sure. It's the least I can do, Nappa," A devious smile grew across the young Sayian's face as he tightened his grip. Nappa looked confused for a moment before Vegeta's smile warped into a face of anger and he found himself hurtling through the air. Nappa couldn't prevent himself from screaming as he found himself flying upwards. "Maybe you won't be such a disappointment when you're dead!"  
Vegeta widened his stance and grunted loudly as he powered up an attack. He could feel the energy coursing throughout his entire body as electricity danced around him. The evil smile returned to his face.

"Goodbye…" He grunted louder as his move finished. A large beam of energy shot itself towards the Prince's former friend and ally, encasing him in a blinding light. Nappa's skin burned as he felt his imminent doom approach.

"No! No, Vegeta!" He screamed at the top of his lungs before the pain overwhelmed him. His entire body tensed up, then, all at once, he ceased to be. His body was completely annihilated in the blast. Vegeta chuckled as he started to look around for his next victims. He looked up to see his foes floating above him, shocked at the event they saw unfold before them. His smile disappeared only to return once he made eye contact with the other Sayian in the area.

Vegeta woke up and turned over in his bed to look out the window. It was a bright, sunny, warm day out. The sunlight poured into the room and directly into his face, shining into his eyes. He grunted and covered them before deciding it was time to get up. He sat up in the bed and swung his legs over the edge, standing up and stretching. He walked over to the desk in the room and picked up his blue jumpsuit.

He put the jumpsuit on first, then he picked the armor, gloves, and boots up and brought them over to the bed. He slid his feet into the boots which fit him perfectly. He then picked his signature battle armor up and stretched it out so it would fit him. He finally put his white gloves on, opening and closing his hand to get a feel for the rubbery texture of the gloves. He rubbed his eyes with his sleeves before standing up again and walking out onto balcony.

He opened the double doors and stepped out, feeling a gentle breeze caress his face. He closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the feeling, before opening them again. He put his hands on the railing and leaned on them, scanning the horizon. He was still on Earth, the planet that he once tried to destroy, training for a threat that they weren't even sure existed. He cracked his neck and walked back inside, closing the doors behind him and sitting on the bed.

"Vegeta! Breakfast is ready!" He heard Bulma call. The Prince sighed and thought back at his dream the night before. He vividly remembered the look on Nappa's face as he was inside the blast. The screams echoed in his head as he reflected on that moment. That was when it all went wrong.

"Vegeta!" Bulma called again.

"Woman I will grace you with my presence when I'm good and ready!" Vegeta called down to her.

"Oh, _I'm sorry!_ I just wanted to let you know that your _free_ meal is ready!"

"I said I'll be done when I'm good and ready!"

"How about I toss your breakfast in the trash?! Huh?! That outta teach you some manners!"

"Woman, don't make me come down there and teach you some respect!"

"How about _you_ learn some first?!"

"Oh hohoho! You do _not_ want to get into this with me!"

"We're already in it!"

Vegeta stood up and stormed out of the room and down the stairs, coming face to face with Bulma, his eyebrows knit together in anger. Bulma crossed her arms and smirked.

"Good, now that you're down here you can eat," she sat down at the table, much to Vegeta's shock. He'd just been tricked. He was about to argue even further but he just decided to cut his losses and sit down, crossing his arms and closing his eyes, he sat across from Bulma, trying his best to ignore her.

Mrs. Briefs came into the room with plates of food and placed them in front of Bulma, Vegeta, and Dr. Briefs, who Vegeta didn't even notice was sitting at the table in his anger. The family started digging into their breakfast, while Vegeta sat silently, arms crossed and eyes closed.

"Come on, Veggie, you need to eat so you can get lots of energy for training today," Bulma teased. The Sayian's eyes shot open and his forehead vein pulsed in anger.

"What did you just call me?!" His hands slammed on the table.

"Aw, what's wrong, don't like your nickname?" Bulma tilted her head sarcastically.

"No! Absolutely not! I demand you cease calling me that immediately!" Vegeta yelled.

"And what if I don't?" Bulma knit her eyebrows together in anger.

"Then after I'm done with the Androids I'll come back and blow this place and _you_ to kingdom come!" Vegeta threatened, making exaggerated, violent hand gestures.

"Then maybe you'll pay attention to us, which would be a nice change of place instead of treating us like robots who make your food and repair your toys when they break!" Bulma stands up and puts her hands on the table, leaning forward.

"Well maybe I'd pay more attention to you if every word that came out of your mouth didn't make me want to vomit violently!" Vegeta imitated Bulma's actions. The two were now standing, staring at each other in anger. Their faces were so close they could feel the heat from each other's breaths. Dr. Briefs sat uncomfortably, watching the fight unfold between them, neither standing down, not wishing to lose the battle.

"Er…" Dr. Briefs managed. Both of their heads jerked to face him, who slid down his chair. "Uh, Vegeta, you should probably get to training. Bulma, I need your help with something today," he gulped hard.

"Hmph, fine," Vegeta and Bulma both stood up and crossed their arms in unison, turning their heads away from the other. Vegeta walked outside the house, leaving his breakfast uneaten. He entered the gravity room and sealed the door shut, leaving him in the mostly empty room in dead silence.


	2. Chapter 2

Vegeta jumped over the training droid, turning mid air and pressing it's off switch mid air, landing gracefully on his feet before backflipping over a laser shot by another droid. He somersaulted forward near another droid, hitting it's off switch as well. The gravity weighed heavily on him, pulling him to the ground. His eyes closed for a moment, listening to his surroundings. He flew up and shot a ki blast towards a droid.

The droid raised it's shields, deflecting the ki blast to another, which raised its shields and deflected it to another, then another, then another, allowing it to gain momentum before it shot back at it's original owner, grazing his side, but not injuring him. He landed and jumped forward, opening his hand, jabbing another droids off switch. Sweat dripped from the Saiyan's forehead down into his eyes. He felt the salty liquid burn his eye for a moment before he wiped his face.

Vegeta's lungs burned and his muscles ached. He lunged at a group of the training droids and in a fury of swipes and jabs, deactivated them all. He only had five more to turn off or destroy. The system detected this and went into overdrive. The droids spread out and raised their shields and started spinning faster as little laser shooters poked out and started humming. The ray guns lit up and discharged their ammunition. Vegeta knocked the lasers away and flew towards them.

He grabbed one of the mechanical balls and threw it at the ground, blowing it up. He put his arms together in front of his face to protect it from an incoming laser. The Prince extended his arm and let out a powerful ki blast that breached its shield and destroyed the little robot. Two down, three to go. He turned his attention to the nearest one, flying towards it and spin kicking it into the wall, disorienting it before appearing above it and grabbing it and crushing it in his hands.

The two remaining training droids flew to the other side of the gravity room, magnifying their shields to one-hundred percent efficiency. Vegeta wasn't going to be able to destroy or deactivate them by any normal means, so instead he widened his stance and curled his fingers and put his hands on top of one another, facing outwards, and kept his hands at chest level.

"Galick…!" He felt the energy course through his body. The tingling and burning sensation travel from his core to his arms.

"Gun…!" A fuchsia ball of energy grew in his outer hand and an aura surrounded him, adding power to the attack.

"FIRE!" A large blast fired from his hands, engulfing the droids, reducing them to nothing more than heaps of charred scrap, and blasting a giant hole in the side of the gravity room, shooting off into the night sky. Vegeta panted and collapsed where he stood as the artificial gravity turned off. He literally felt as if the weight of three hundred and fifty Earth's have been lifted off his shoulders.

The Prince panted heavily, trying to gasp for air and recover from the training session. He hadn't realized how long he'd been training. When he started it was very early in the morning, but now it was late at night. He guessed about one or two o' clock.

"What… The… Hell?!" He heard a familiar, nagging voice scream. Vegeta sighed, knowing he was about to get a lecture from the Earth Woman. "What did you do?! Oh my god you just blew a giant hole in the wall! Why would you do something like that?! Do you have ANY idea how long I spent on this damn thing?!" Bulma complained.

"Spare me," Vegeta stood up and hopped down onto the grass from the hole and started walking towards the house. "Have it repaired by tomorrow morning, I'm almost at four hundred times gravity and I can't stop now."

"Tomorrow?! No way that's not even possible! Not to mention if you continue at this pace you're going to drop dead from exhaustion! Although at this point that would be a blessing so you would finally be out of my hair!" Bulma yelled.

"Hey, Earth Peasant, less talking more repairing. That hole won't fix itself," The Saiyan stretched out, ready to call it a night.

"'Earth peasant?!' Why you… I don't... I can't believe you… How can you…" Bulma's face turned red with anger and she stomped her foot a few times.

"And while you're closing the hole in the gravity room, why don't you close the hole that is your mouth so I won't have to deal with your incessant nagging all the damn time? It's getting on my nerves."

"How about you start treating me as more than just a slave to do anything you want at your beck and call?!"

"Whatever"

"No, not whatever! I am sick and tired of you pushing us around! I demand respect! And I demand it now!"

"Isn't that a shame?" Vegeta yawned.

"You… You bastard get back here!" Bulma ran in front of him, putting he hands on his chest to stop him from proceeding into the house.

"You dare lay your hands on a Saiyan Elite?! You'd better learn your place, Woman!" Vegeta knit his eyebrows together.

"You know what? Yeah! What are you going to do, hit me?! Go ahead, I dare you! You won't! You don't have the guts!" Bulma taunted.

"Woman, you better take your hands off me right now…" Vegeta demanded.

"Or what?"  
"Or I'll-"

"Or you'll what?!"

"I'll-"

"You won't do anything!"

Vegeta clenched his fists and growled in anger before knocking her hands off his chest.

"Don't ever lay your hands on me again, do you hear me woman? I will make you regret it!" Vegeta threatened before entering the house and storming into his room.

"That… Inconsiderate bastard!" Bulma said outloud. "I can't believe the nerve of him! Shooting a hole into the side of the gravity room I worked so hard on then demanding I fix it! Me! The daughter to the greatest inventor of all time! He has some nerve… Why I outta!" She walked over to the broken gravity room and took a capsule out of her pocket and pushed the button, dropping it. A cluster of repair parts popped out.

"Somebody should take him down a peg! I don't even know why I invited him to stay here! He's such an unbelievable bastard! I never thought I could meet somebody as big as a jerk as he is! It's inconceivable!" She kept talking to herself as she started to repair the hole in the wall. "And it's not like I'm making him pay for a room or anything, no, I'm letting him stay here for free! He get's breakfast, lunch, dinner, everything! That is when he decides to 'grace' us with his presence! He still manages to eat all of our food anyway! 'Oh, look at me, I'm the Prince of all TWO Saiyans! Fear me and obey!'" Bulma grumbled in a mocking voice, waving her wrench around.

"And I wouldn't mind him eating all of our food either if he was polite about it, but he's not! He's so rude! He doesn't clean up after himself, he makes a huge mess, and he doesn't even push his chair in! My poor mother has to clean up after that arrogant bastard! And his schedule! He wakes up, then immediately goes into the damn gravity room! Only popping his troll doll head out when he demands food! I swear he has a death wish! He's going to die in there and I'll be left to clean up his body! I wish he would just give it a rest! And _I_ have to tend to his wounds! And he has the audacity to try to refuse my help! It's as if he want's to die! I wouldn't be able to help him either if he didn't pass out from the pain all the time like a total dolt! He insists on working until he literally drops, then I'm left to nurse him back to health! Then the next day when I try to check up on him, he's back in the gravity room! I would drag him out of there by force if i wouldn't be crushed by the intense gravity. I can't even believe I told him he was kind of cute either. He's just an arrogant, headstrong, rude, inconsiderate, suicidal, idiotic jackass!" Bulma sat down on the ground and pulled her knees to her chest, her face totally red.

"Just a jackass"


	3. Chapter 3

"Prince Vegeta! Do you copy, sir?" A voice asked through the child's scouter.

"I'm here," Vegeta said in between bites of his food.

"Sir, unfortunate news from Lord Frieza. Planet Vegeta was struck by a large asteroid today... A-and destroyed." The sympathetic voice said.

"And… You're sure?" Vegeta said, his voice unwavering.

"Affirmative, sir. Lord Frieza sends his sympathies and regrets. As of now, you're the only known survivor."

"Oh… Really?"

"Would you like to send a reply, sir?"  
"No. No reply,"

"Very well, sir. Over and out," Vegeta heard as he stared straight ahead. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Surely it had to be a mistake? His planet, his entire race, just gone. He felt lightheaded. What was he going to do? His father, his mother, dead. At least he still had his brother. His coward, weakling brother.

"My… My race. Everyone is gone. How could this have happened?" The kingdomless Prince asked himself.

(OoO)

Vegeta swung his legs over the side of the bed and yawned. He reflected on the dream he had just woken up from. He remembered the day he was informed that Planet Vegeta was destroyed. He remembered the confusion he felt and the denial he went through. It's been so long that he barely even remembered what the planet looked like.

He looked down at his open hand, deep in thought. He clenched his fist and stood up, walking over to a full length mirror to observe himself. He admired his own short stature, his tall, spiky hair, and his black eyes. He was still wearing his armor from the night before after his argument with the woman. He couldn't wear it again or he might pass out from the stench, so he decided to wear shorts today.

"Vegeta!" He heard her call up. Vegeta remained silent, staring at his reflection. "Vegeta!" She called up again. Vegeta continued to ignore her, deep in thought. Moments later he heard knocking on the door. "Vegeta!" She said while slamming on the door.

"Woman, you are disturbing me!" Vegeta called through the door.

"Oh, _I'm sorry!_ How about I just leave you up here to starve? How would you like that you jerk?!"

"I am _not_ in the mood for this right now!"

"When are you ever in the mood for anything besides making my life a living hell?!"

"How about I just make it regular Hell?! Now leave me be, Woman!"

"Fine! I'll leave you alone! Go train, maybe with any luck you'll drop dead!" Bulma stormed off downstairs. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized what she just said. How could she have said something like that? What if he did drop dead because of training? After all she did know his habits. Train from the moment he woke up to the moment he nearly fainted from exhaustion.

Bulma pushed the thought out of her head. She knew he was strong enough and could handle it. After all, he wasn't stupid enough to train if he knew that he was at his limit, right? She had more important things to think about anyway. Yamcha was coming over later for lunch, so she had that to get her mind off that arrogant jerk. She still had five hours until he was supposed to come, so she had time to herself.

(OoO)

"You know what, Bulma? I'm so glad we could continue to be friends even after we've broken up," Yamcha said. "I mean, broken up for now, of course. We always get back together again, right?" He scratched the back of his head.

"Mhm," Bulma disinterestedly grunted. The truth was she didn't want to be with him any longer. She got tired of their on again off again relationship, their constant fighting, everything.

"Yeah. So… How's-" Yamcha was cut off by the entire house being violently shaken by a large explosion. They immediately ran outside to see what happened.

"Vegeta!" Bulma called out when she saw the wreckage of the gravity room.

"I knew this would happen!" Yamcha exclaimed. "He's been trying to do the impossible!"

"Where is he?" Bulma asked, kneeling down near the rubble. "Vegeta?" She called out as she started moving the remnants of the gravity room. She was startled when a hand popped out, causing her to scream and fall back into Yamcha.

Vegeta pulled himself out from under the rubble, pain coursing through his body. Every fiber of his being felt intense pain as he arose from the debris.

"You… Okay?" Bulma asked, her voice quivering with fear and concern.

"Of course I am," the Prince claimed through his teeth as he stood up, knocking burnt pieces of metal away from him. Bulma sighed with relief before she turned to him with a look of anger.

"How dare you, you jerk! You almost wrecked my house, what are you trying to prove?!" She yelled at him. Vegeta managed a couple of laughs before he fell on his back in pain. "Wha…? Oh no! You-you're hurt!" She ran to the Saiyans side and held him in her arms.

"No… I don't need help!" Vegeta told her, desperately trying to keep his pride intact. "I've got training to do…"

"You've got to stop training for a while! I mean, look at you, you're a complete wreck!"

"Ugh… But I feel fine, I'm a Saiyan, I can take a little pain, it means nothing to me. And I have to get stronger than Kakarot!" Just saying the name of his arch-rival made Vegeta angry. Kakarot, the do-gooder. Kakarot, the defender of Earth. Kakarot, the Super Saiyan. No, that was Vegeta's title! He was the Super Saiyan, not Kakarot! The Prince of all Saiyans should not be trying to play catch up to a low-level warrior like Kakarot.

"Okay, sure, we all know you're a tough guy, but you need to rest now," Bulma tried to convince him.

"I-I take orders from no one!" Vegeta forced himself to get up. _I'm not going to let this woman tell me what to do. She's in with Kakarot. She's trying to stop me from getting stronger than him! Well I won't let her! I'm going to get up, I'm going to train, and I'm going to become a legendary Super Saiya- why am I suddenly on the ground?_

Without realizing it, Vegeta had keeled over and passed out, leaving Bulma and Yamcha to help carry him inside.


End file.
